The magnetic levitation railway is a track-guided transport system with non-contact levitation, guidance and propulsion technology. The levitation and guidance system works on the principle of electromagnetic levitation, which is based on the attractive forces between the levitation magnets of the underbody of the vehicle and the ferromagnetic reaction rails, the so-called stator packs, which are installed beneath the track. The levitation magnets attract the vehicle to the track from beneath, and the guidance magnets installed at the side hold the vehicle laterally in the track. The levitation and guidance magnets are arranged over the entire length of the vehicle on both sides. The essential element of this technology comprises the track supports forming the track, which take on the functions of support, guidance and levitation of the vehicle and transmit the loads via the main supporting framework to the bearings; from there, the loads are passed to the ground via the substructures and the foundations.
The torsionally rigid steel track supports, which are generally fully welded in a fully automatic manner and have a hollow triangular or hollow trapezoidal cross section with closed end faces, for the track of a magnetic levitation railway, consisting of a cover plate with a thickness of from 15 to 25 mm, which forms the upper chord and to which the web plates having a thickness of from 10 to 20 mm, which form the side walls and which converge at an angle to the mid-vertical plane of the track support, are connected in a downward direction. In the case of the track support with a hollow triangular cross section, the lower chord consists of a tube, and in the case of the track support having a hollow trapezoidal cross section, the lower chord consists of a base plate with a thickness of from 30 to 50 mm. The longitudinal edge sections of the cover plate, which project over each of the side wall web plates in the manner of a jib, are stiffened by cross-supports or bulkheads installed at intervals and at the same time serve to connect the functional components corresponding to the levitation and guidance system of the vehicle, essentially consisting of stator packs with cable windings and the guidance rails, which are connected via anchoring supports to double-T supports attached to the jibs (ref.: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau, ETR 33, 1984, issue 6, pp. 487 to 492, in particular pp. 488/89).
Based on this prior art, DE-C-19735471 discloses a track support in which the side guidance rails are mounted directly at the ends of the cover plate jibs projecting over the lateral side wall web plates. The stator packs with a length of about 1 m, which consist of plastic-bonded and encapsulated electric steel plates are arranged on both sides of the track support beneath the jibs along the entire track. Via three grooved cross members, which are bonded in an interlocking manner in the jib-facing side of each stator pack, these stator packs are attached, in each case by means of two bolts, to the stator support chord, which is connected to the stator support web, which is arranged on the underside of the jib and runs parallel to the mid-vertical plane of the track support. The grooved cross members and the grooves accommodating these in the stator support chord form a redundant attachment in addition to the bolt.
Since the function and operational strength of the track supports forming the track must be guaranteed for the service life of at least 80 years, all surfaces of the track support have to be automatically blasted and cleaned in accordance with DIN 55928, Part 4, with a standard cleanliness of SA 2½ or greater by means of one or more freely programmable handling devices. A primer coat of zinc dust and three further coats of iron mica are subsequently applied to the surfaces prepared in this way by means of one or more freely programmable handling devices. In order to meet the requirement for a service life of 80 years, maintenance and inspection, where necessary together with repair work of the track, is necessary at regular intervals.